❅ Merry Christmas ❣

 Merry Christmas to all my Blog Readers & Followers!
A day late but there was no time to blog yesterday! How was everyone's Christmas? Good? We hope so!
Amazingly my Brother was first up on Christmas, (unlike today, it's currently 12:30 and he has only just rolled out his cave.) He even went to wake our Parents up. (ﾟ▽ﾟ*)♪

Opening presents on Christmas never seems to last as long as it used to. Unless of course you have a gifts from me and since I am a serious eBayer and general seller, I tend to fall in love with sticky tape. (￣、￣;)
My Brother and I take it in turns to open, mainly due to 'SURPRISE PHOTO' and to see our reactions. I actually took no photos on Christmas Day, so I will have to go and steal one or two photos from my Brother at a later date and update this entry.

Since today is Boxing Day I had time to bring the camera into our front room and take a few photos of my gifts.

Vivienne Westwood - LET IT ROCK, oh this was such a surprise, considering I have been hinting about Chamu smell Jean Paul Gaultier all month. It has a very nice distinctive smell which actually lasts through the day, I've found some perfumes and fragrances fade after a couple hours. Then I also got a Moomin soft toy. I love Moomins, and have done ever since I was a Child.

The second photo is all Hello Kitty based, I got Hello Kitty cheki for my Camera, which will be so hard to use, but I am going to save them for when I return to Japan. A hot water bottle, which I will surgically attach to myself because I am always cold. Oh, the next thing is a travel toothbrush. I hinted at my Brother to get me this, since it was part of the Hello Kitty 'range' at our Poundstore. Handy~

It seems pretty much all my Friends got a Simon's Cat book. I ended up with two, which I can relate to so many scenes. ( ￣▽￣)ﾉ Is that a good thing? My Brother got me the other book titled 'Chinglish' - depending on your humour for spelling errors, translations gone wrong and general 'Engrish Lolz' this book is so funny - as well as worrying. If you like this sort of thing, I highly recommend going to here for more funnies.
My Parents always struggle for gifts as of recent, since this year I'm not going to Japan - so any travel essentials aren't necessary. But I got some cute bubble baths, a note pad and iPod dock~ all very useful! I needed that dock, I can't wait to test it out, since my PC speakers are crap.

This is the 'chaos' of mine and my Brother's gifts combined. He got a handful of mugs, being a tea drinker and Starbucks lover he is. He also got a Polaroid 300 camera - a bit like the Cheki Instax mini? Also some BEATS, insane jealousy since they sound so much better than Skull Candy! We also got a bunch of candy and chocolate, so I know for the New Year I am going to need to rid my pudge.
 

✌ Shopping + Update

How is everyone? I have picked up the habit of taking my camera with me, everywhere I go. So I have more things to show in my blog.

On the 14th December, it was my Fathers Birthday. So my Mother took us all to Frankie & Bennys which was so different to our usual restaurants. It's an Italian-American restaurant that seems rather popular in the UK, we have a couple in my City. My Father really enjoys having burgers - like, seriously really enjoys burgers - huge ones. None of that McDonalds fast food. Real beef - the real deal.

 

I sort of blinded him with my flash, but that is the burger - yes he ate it all too. I was hoping he would leave an onion ring however. But he needs a reward for finishing that meal! We even ate cake afterwards at home.

I had 'Sticky Pasta' with Chicken, there was a choice between shrimps or chicken, so I went for chicken. It was very nice, with large pieces of chicken, mushrooms and BBQ grilled peppers all cooked in a hoi sin sauce. My Father had a good Birthday - well I hope he did. We managed to get him the car he wanted, and my Brother and I treated him with a £20 gift card so he could buy car accessories for his new toy~ ✦

This week has been rather hectic with it being so close to Christmas, I am still not prepared at all either, I have been into the City so many times this week, and I still need to go, but the rain - seriously, British weather, I despise it. I don't like travelling in the rain, plus I actually own no Winter clothing, odd considering British people do nothing but moan about the coldness.

My accessories! They can truly make or break an outfit! I have so many, that sometimes putting on clothes is easy, it's just finding the right accessories to add.
✦ Bag - An Cafe!
✦ Bracelets - Claires.
✦ Fox tail - H&M - I added the bow myself, it was in a lucky pack from Claires.

Here is my bag and fox tail again, don't worry, this fox tail is 100% fake!
✦ Necklace 1 - Claires again. I have twin necklace with Toni!
✦ Necklace 2 - Monomania. I love this brand, hoping to get more of their line.

A full outfit shot in my Parents room, it's the only one with the best lighting. I realise now how frumpy my shirt makes me look.
✦ Shirt - H&M, again Toni and I have matching shirts. It's so cute.
✦ Leggings - H&M - total hippy alright? ☮
✦ Sneakers - Adidas.
✦ Jacket - No Brand.

I guess I must've looked crazy walking out dressed like this. I did have shorts on underneath and three pairs of stockings to keep warm, as well as 2 cami vests.So yeah I wasn't insanely cold, and having spent December in Japan for the past two years I've sort of hardened to the cooler weather, just Britain is much-much colder.

My shopping gets! Pound shops - Dollar shops and even 100yen shops, who else loves them nearly as much as I do? You can find some fabulous things in them if you are lucky enough. (I worked as a cashier in one, their stock changes almost weekly, so there is something new each week!) I came across a Hello Kitty selection this week, I am not a huge-huge fan of Hello Kitty, but I couldn't resist this box of tissues for my room. There was also some Hello Kitty mouthwash - in a Bubblegum flavour which of course I was a little sceptical about because the mouthwash is bright pink! But it tastes amazing - yes it is for Children under 6 years, but I don't use this as a replacement for my actual mouthwash. That would be crazy, considering how sweet this is too. America, you never seize to amaze me! Or my cat - she also thought it tasted rather good!

Thank you for the wonderful comments on my previous blogs. It's great to know people are reading them. I will follow back my new followers, once Blogger stops being silly, I promise!

☆ German Market

Over the weekend my Brother and I attempted to do Christmas Shopping. A lot of people say they will do their shopping over the year - and never do, come December, we are all running around like headless chickens, rush rush rush. Typically, I am one of those people, I say it every year - but here I am, with only one gift.

The German market here is different to last year, we had an Ice Rink, which was pretty cute - but the line was always huge, I never understood this, because not even 10 minutes away is an indoor Ice Rink? Either way, the market is always cute to walk around, we went early in the morning, so there are no festive lights to show.

 

My Brother photo bombing. I am uploading this to embarrass him forever. Well - until he notices it is here. There are a couple decorations hanging from the lights - they were cute at first, maybe five years ago. Can we have new ones, please? No photos of the tree in the City, it's massive, with a huge nativity set under it.

Gets of the day! I failed successfully at getting ANY Christmas Presents. The "Letter Set" isn't even mine, but, I wanted to include it, look at that fatty goodness of snacks. But the two bubble wrap envelopes were so amazing to find, they're in Paperchase - which is an AMAZING! store. I buy a lot of gifts here, including wrapping paper, postcards and stickers. So my friend Juu will get an awesome metallic package soon! Oh - the Calbee Prawn Crackers were a must after going to the Oriental Market. I pretty much lived on them in Japan, at 105yen a pack, these were 75p - a deal in comparison to the £1.95-something in London, Japan Centre. My Brother randomly asked for some 'YanYan' Some of the quotes are so funny, please see the link, Engrish fail? But they were adorable, according to him, very tasty too!

Recently we have been having a beautiful little visitor to our garden. I grew Sunflowers over the Summer this year, and now the heads are hanging beneath a tree to dry out, but - we were going to throw them away, since it looked like they were rotting, but we soon saw they were rather appetizing for one little guest. Isn't he adorable? We do have to keep an eye on our cats when they go out, this brave little guy not last too long if he keeps being greedy and not keeping up his guard, it totally looks like he was posing too!

♫ Gets

 

キタ━━━(゜∀゜)━━━!!!!!  

My parcel finally arrived from Japan. I was super excited to receive it, after months of saving to pay off my shopping service. He is lovely and totally understanding but I always feel bad owing him for so long.
I had pretty much forgotten what I had asked for, but I knew roughly a couple of the items. He did make a mistake of ordering the wrong CD, but the band was releasing a new single at the time I asked. But I can easily buy their older single again next year.

This is roughly what I had asked for. I am hiding a couple things, simply because two are gifts for a Friend. ( ´∀｀)σ)∀`)

❄ チェキ! Zip.er & 春
❄ A(エース) - Black Butterfly CD
❄ Monomania necklace!
❄ GIFT: Secret.

Freebies! Everyone loves a little extra with their order! I got the PV for Black Butterfly, also another photocard with my Zip.er things. (￣▽￣)ﾉ I only wanted 2 of these, so I will be selling the other three Haruhi.

I forgot that I had bought the December issue of egg while in London last month. Although the styles aren't very appealing to me right now, it's getting a little boring and I think personally the street snaps are far cuter than what is being modelled. (ﾒﾟ皿ﾟ)ﾉ"

One page was rather helpful with a couple tips for the "double eyelid" effect. Though it was rather funny to see them use actual band aids to create the look. But applying make up over the top of them was really noticeable, I'm pretty sure as well that the make up will rub off eventually too? Someone please try this out! (＾∇＾) As you can see they use everything from a glue to a tape. (｡･ω･｡)ﾉ~☆

I did come across something I am really curious to try out, they were slimming socks that you can sleep in. ACK! （　ﾟДﾟ） Sleeping with socks on is really uncomfortable, unless my toes are actually freezing, but I usually always kick my socks off eventually. But from the picture as you can see, they are footless socks - well, toeless? My thighs would have to be my least favourite thing about my body so I would consider these greatly to see if they help improve the shape of my legs. I read a lot of Gals use these to sleep in giving them slimmer looking legs and thighs. Although they stop a little above the knee - maybe they have some you can wear to make your butt and thighs smaller? （´∀｀）

Is everyone excited for Christmas? I still have yet to send out gifts to my Friends who live out of the UK! Hopefully they will arrive on time before Christmas, it's cutting it so close, but I am a pro procrastinator!

中國 綠茶茶包 : Chinese Green Tea

Not long until Christmas now! (´・ω・)っ由　

Look how festive that photo is. My Brother is really into photography for well over a year now, this was taken last year at Christmas. Last year at Christmas was pretty crazy, as I was leaving for Japan the following day. So this year I am staying at home in England - though I feel a little saddened to miss ringing in the New Year in Japan. (/□＼*)

After KanonxKanon VIP, I suddenly wanted to buy green tea - again. (*￣▽￣)ノ There is a love-hate relationship I have with green tea. I'm typically British, I love my tea with milk and sugar. So green tea is a little out the comfort zone, let alone a Chinese green tea. But there are so many health benefits of drinking green tea! ヽ(^∇^*)ﾉ 

 

 I managed to find a brand called "Sea Dyke" who sold a box of 20 tea bags for 99p. It's a Chinese brand, and far cheaper than the regular brands out there that happen to provide green tea in their long list of teas. It comes in a cute little box, simple but it's only tea, we don't need some fancy character for tea. Each tea bag is individually wrapped for freshness, I guess it also stops the little strings from getting tangled when exported.

My Mother always swaps our mugs for December, so we all end up having 'Festive' mugs for Christmas, perhaps Santa will get me a Penguin one, like Kanon? o(≧∀≦)o
Green tea is pretty easy to make, just add water, and wait a few minutes, depending on how strong you like your tea. Although I am pretty impatient myself so my tea always ends up being weak. It doesn't have a strong aroma like most teas, I've found that Tetley Green Tea had a strange aroma that really put me off in the past. The tea tastes rather nice, although my sweet tooth is pleading at me right now for something sugary and it has a strong bitter after taste but overall it does taste nice!

Overall lets give it: ★★★★☆ simply because I want to try another brand from Japan I read about. Does anyone have any other recommendations?